Monthly Archives: November 2022

The Streak Ends and Renews

Hello all,

Sorry for the long time no post. My wife took me on a wonderful vacation. While I planned to do a significant amount of DND/GM work while we were gone. The lack of internet on the cruise ship was unhelpful. So the streak ended. And we started again last night.

It had been an exhausting 28 hours of flights and driving so I didn’t have a ton of energy on Sunday night. I did put in about 30 minutes and basecoated using the airbrush the guard units for my dwarf army.

The effect is really subtle using a bronze color. I wanted the guard unit to look completely different from the rest of the army. I will do most of the details in the standard blue with silver weapons. Hopefully, I can have them and another 20 or so done this week.

Is there a day you would like to see more terrain? More tutorials? Let me know. Talk soon.

Hobby Steak Update 11/14/2022

Just giving an update on my hobby streak. I am most likely going to just do posts Monday and Thursday from here on out. It seems silly to post everyday.

My goal to start the streak is to finish a singular project. Something I am lacking on. I am hopeful that finishing a project will inspire me to finish others. Currently, I have 10 or so unfinished, half-finished armies and projects that I always have time to start but never finish. I want to finish something. As I grow and hobbying becomes a habit, I will work on enhancing my craft and giving real tutorials on painting the models.

Friday, I had a good time in the afternoon and was able to completely finish a unit of 8 dwarf rangers. They are fully painted using contrast paints. I wanted a little grimy haggard look to the rangers. Saturday, I finished 10 dwarven infantry; these turned out really well. I also constructed at least 14 Marvel Crisis Protocol models, I think it is closer to 20.

Sunday, we chose to decorate our house for Christmas, 16 trips of stuff from the garage later, and 10 back in. We are still not complete. I didn’t have much hobby energy after that, so I just built a few more Marvel Crisis Protocol models. Hobby tip, use Zap Kicker to harden your superglue instantly. It is an absolutely huge bonus to speed up your process.

I was having some issues sleeping, so I went and airbrushed a handful of Star Wars Armada ships. None of these are part of the main game. I purchased them through Shapeways, MelMinatures. He has several hundred fantastic sculpts. I will warn you however that the models are a challenge to paint. They require a solid scrubbing to remove the residue. I also would recommend while painting, you avoid using a wash or shade. The model soaks it right up, and it looks awful. Instead, basecoat and drybrush up rather than down. I will get pics to you at some point. They will be featured in a game as well. I painted 2 Nebulon B-2 (the kind with double bottom fins), a customs corvette, and General Grievous’s pride and joy, the Malevolence.

Battle Report ASOIAF Nights Watch vs Neutral

50 pts. 8×4 Table Here we Stand Night’s Watch has the Throne

Below are the Army Lists

Neutral50Nights Watch
Vargo HoatJon Snow
House Bolton Cutthroats5Veterans of the Watch7
Bloody Murmur Skirmishers6Builder Stone Thrower8
(1) Stormcrow Lieutenant1Sworn Brothers7
Bloody Mummer Zorse Riders6(1) Othell Yarrick1
House Bolton Blackguards6Ranger Vanguards7
(2) Ramsay Snow2Ranger Hunters7
House Bolton Flayed Men8Ghost3
(1) Glory Seeker1Craster4
Hedge Knights7Quorin Halfhand6
Walder Frey4
Roose Bolton4

Below is the initial setup. I am nervous about Jon Snow and Ghost being on an island on their own against Flayed Ones and Zorse Riders. Hopefully, the stone-thrower can damage a few units before it is engaged. I liked Neutral’s chances based on the game mode. I always roll a d10, and this was the one. The cav-heavy list could really cause issues for NW.

Round 1 and 2 were relatively simple. Neutral cav pushed to the flanks and the ranger vanguard, with help from the stone thrower locked in the hedge knights. Round 3 is where it got very interesting.

The ranger vets and ghost one-shotted the Zorse riders, and the flayed ones with a charge reroll failed to get a 2+ on either roll. And the ranger hunters did 7 damage to the cuthroats and eliminated them. At that point, the game was essentially over, but I was truly shocked. The sworn swords were eliminated.

I called the game after round 4; the veterans were able to kill the flayed ones, and the blackguard were also killed. It was an easy victory for The Nights Watch. I was very surprised at the result. The one-shot kill of the zorse riders plus failed charge completely changed the game. Also, 7 damage from ranger hunters on the cutthroats was a very good roll. Plus they routed 2 other models for 9 total wounds to eliminate them.

As far as the game itself, Walder Frey was really good. He was the only reason Neutral had a chance after round 3. It was my first time bringing a stone-thrower which was a complete glass cannon, it did 8 wounds against the blackguard, 3 against the hedge knights and that was it. The only reason it did so well against the blackguard was Yarrick, who was killed by one of the boltons. It was also my first time with Zorse Riders. I was shocked at how easily they left the table, but sometimes that’s how it goes.

This will be my last ASOIAF battle report for awhile. I am going to switch to Flames of War for a few weeks.

Hobby Streak 11/10/22

Dwarf warriors completed. I finished painting a unit of 10 dwarven warriors, nothing truly spectacular as they are just grunts infantry. Here is the list I intend to use for the battle when the army is done. (aka this gives me approximately 30 fully painted models)

Unit Name# of ModelsPointsOther
King1325
Engineer1235
Dragon Seeker1355
Clan Warriors20305Champ, Musc, Standard, Great Weapons
Clan Warriors30425Cham, Musc, Standard, Shield
Clan Warriors25390Champ, Musc, Standard, Shield and Spear
Greybeards20370Champ, Musc, Standard
Clan Marskmen15310Handgun
Rangers8182Champ, Musc, Crossbow
Kings Guard20505Champ, Musc, Standard,
Grudge Buster1305Airship
Steam Copters1215Sharpnel Bombs
Field Artillery1255Run Crafter Dwarf Cannon
Field Artillery1325Flaming Shot, Rune Crafted Organ Gun
20% complete1454502

Battle Report ASOIAF Lannister vs Night’s Watch

Game review, it was a thrilling game. I did not think the Lannister’s had a chance after round 3/4. A huge turn for them in 5 to kill the opposing leader and win the game. I have ASOIAF 4 times in the last couple of weeks (all solo, none competitive) each game seems to hinge on a single diceroll, or timely card draw. As a magic player, I emphasize maximizing cards.

I definitely want to play more with the Spearmen they are a solid unit and good value for points. I think experimenting with some of the attachments could be interesting. The scorpion underperformed that game, only generating 3 wounds. Ghost, as always, did work so did the Watch Marshal. I feel like Coldhand’s ability was near useless. Cotter Pyke as a general is fantastic, his cards allowing an extra attack nearly made the difference.

I also felt that Ser Robert Strong is a complete house. 2 extra auto wounds are huge, especially on the charge. His unit did 9 wounds, caused a failed panic test then they rolled a 6 on the test to literally one-shot a decent builder crossbow unit.

Played a 50 pt match of Lannister vs Night’s Watch 4×8 table. Clash of Kings Scenario, Night’s Watch with the Throne

Lannisters50Nights Watch
(c) Joffery Baratheon(c) Cotter Pyke
Kingsguard6Shadowtower Spearmen7
Gregor Clegane4Veterans of the Watch7
House Clegane Mountains Men6(2) Jon Snow2
(1) Sandor Clegane1Builder Scorpion Crew5
Lannister Hallberdiers6Ghost3
(3) Ser Robert Strong3Watch Marshal4
Lannister Crossbow6Ranger Trackers6
Lannister Guardsmen5(Coldhands)1
Lannister Guardsmen5Bowen Marsh4
Cersi Lannister4Ser Denys Mallister4
Pycell4

Setting up the game, I wanted to see how many Clegane’s I could put in a list. I should have thrown in some brigands instead of the guardsmen, but it made points very awkward. I had some new units I hadn’t played with before on the Nightswatch end. Notably the Spearmen and Watch Marshal. Here is a picture of turn 1 deployment after the scorpion moved.

Nothing really interesting happened until turn 3. The Mountains Men failed a charge, the builder crossbow plus a flank attack from the watch marshal almost eliminated a unit of guardsmen. The veterans of the watch charged the other guardsmen nearly destroying them. And Gregor engaged and drove off the trackers.

Turn 4 I almost called it quits the spearmen nearly had the Kingsguard destroyed, the guards were dead. Ghost was on the rear of the Mountains Men, it didn’t look good. Then turn 5 came. Lannister shinanegans. They killed the Builder Crossbow with a brilliant charge from the halberdiers, eliminated the spears with a great shot from their own crossbows, and the Mountains Men nearly survived their engagement with the veterans.

Turn 6 with the Lannisters having the throne. They first took the wealth to give 3 more wounds to the Kingsguard preventing any scorpion luck with double attacks. At that point the game was over, Nightswatch were too far behind. I did play it out using the scorpion to kill the mountain’s men hoping for the unlikliest of charges. Lannisters took the maneuver point on the board and moved the Kingsguard out of charge and attack range to kill Joeffery. Lannister 9 NW 7

11/09/22 Streak

The streak begins with a few minor models. I cleaned up my hobby space which was littered with 6 months of clutter from no work being done. I filled up my water cup and wet palate put the paints where they belonged, and threw away the accumulated garbage. I am starting with a set of 10 dwarven warriors with great axes on square bases. I do 10 because that is the typical unit size in Age of Sigmar, and I have 3d printed tons of base adapters. You can go from a square base to a round base but not a round to a square, so I use square.

I only had about 30 minutes; I painted all of the exposed skin using contrast, the wood, and the hair. I think I had 3 or 4 different hair colors. I also brook out the reaper darkened steel for metals and the Vallejo extra opaque yellow and blue as the base colors. This way, they match the rest of my Cities of Sigmar. All of the models were previously zenithal highlighted.

Should finish these in the next few days. I also inventoried my death guard, which, given I don’t know much about the army, was an accomplishment.

Yesterday I lost an Election

11/09/2022

Yesterday I lost an election. I campaigned to be the mayor of my hometown. Literally, everyone told me how great I was, I would do a good job, and they voted for me. I did all the things, door-to-door, radio ads, Facebook ads, and direct mailers, it wasn’t enough.

For a while, I have wanted a hobby page and hobby business. I enjoy tabletop games. I enjoy playing, thinking, and creating. I enjoy painting and studying lore. I do not enjoy gluing models together.

So today, after much deliberation, I am going to start a hobby streak. A real hobby streak. I am relying on this blog to keep me accountable. Pictures of what I accomplished the whole kit and caboodle. I want my armies finished and on the table. I want to solo fight beautiful battles.

What Counts as Hobbying

  • Painting Models
  • Building Models
  • Painting/Building Terrain
  • Playing A Game (hobby’d minis only)
  • Creating Rules
  • Creating Scenarios
  • Creating Campaigns
  • Building Army Lists
  • DND Creating
  • Soccer Officiating

Most of those are obvious. I feel like anytime I am building models or terrain or painting them, it counts as hobbying. When I am playing a game with miniatures that I hobby’d it counts. Aka if I play a General D’Armee or Warhammer. What does not count ASOIAF, X-Wing, Armada, where now hobby work takes place.

If I am creating rules, I am working on a ruleset for General D’Armee to add dragons, per the Temeraire book series. If I am creating unique situations or scenarios for games to add objectives or intrigue. How often in war is the objective to stand on this spot for 5 turns. I love doing this for Warhammer, especially because it adds a lot to the game. Ditto creating a campaign, my little brother and I have a Grecco-Persian war campaign close to ending, and it is time for a new one, probably 100 Years War or crusades. Building army lists is also huge; I like thematic lists. That meets the competitive side but is also thematic. A unit of icefall yetis is not going to visit the tomb kings; I am fine with different armies I just want the lists to be thematic.

One thing I really enjoy is DND. I haven’t had a campaign for a few months, the start of the election cycle, but getting back into a campaign would be exciting. I added these more bookwork things, not for ease of use but on days when my wife and I are traveling, I can still hobby. This goal may change in the future, but I look at our upcoming adventures together, and it seems silly to set myself a goal that I know I will fail at instead of setting myself up to succeed.

The same goes for refereeing soccer. I consider that a hobby of mine I enjoy. I also know I will struggle to find time to hobby and painting when I am at a tournament for 12 hours stuck in a hotel with a roommate. So I am going to consider refereeing a hobby at least for now.